All posts filed under: New Testament

not cast offs – a reflection on Luke 24:36b-48

April 12, 2012
by rick
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Christology / Easter / Eschatology / Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Year B

The following is a reflection on Luke 24:36b-48, the Gospel lesson for Easter 3B and the Thursday in Easter Week, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. The Gospel authors (especially Luke and John) go to great lengths to show that there’s something different about the resurrected Christ. Something so different that Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize Jesus, and in fact mistakes him for the gardener, on Easter morning. And then the disciples on the road to […]

Palm Sunday Year B

March 21, 2012
by rick
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Christology / Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Year B

The following is a reflection on the Passion in the Gospel of Mark. For a version of the Prayers of the People based on the Christ Hymn in Philippians, suited for use on Palm Sunday, click here. The portrayal of the Passion and Crucifixion in the Synoptics differs from the Gospel of John. In the Synoptics the Crucifixion is a moment of agony. Jesus is screaming screams of abandonment while being tortured.

unbidden – a reflection on Hebrews 5:5-10

March 15, 2012
by rick
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Christology / Epistles / Lectionary / New Testament / Old Testament / Pentateuch / Theology / Year B

The following is a reflection on Hebrews 5:5-10, the Epistle Lesson for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, according to the Revised Standard Lectionary. Hebrews 5:1-10 is the Epistle Lesson for Proper 24B. Abram had been told by God to pick up from his land—the only home he had ever known—and go to a new place.You can’t possibly imagine how big this is unless you’ve ever been among people who are rooted to their land through […]

lifted high – a reflection on John 3:14-21

March 7, 2012
by rick
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Exodus / Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Old Testament / Pentateuch / Year B

The following is a reflection on John 3:14-21, the Gospel lesson for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. The scene of the brazen serpent (in Numbers 21:4-9) immediately makes me recall the serpent in the Garden of Eden. That the Israelites were punished for their thanklessness with deadly biting serpents, and then forced to look upon the image of another serpent to find a cure, makes me think […]

where God dwells – a reflection on John 2:13-22

February 27, 2012
by rick
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Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Temple

The following is a reflection on John 2:13-22. the Gospel lesson for the Third Sunday in Lent, Year B, according to the Revised Common Lectionary. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. In my imagination, it went something like this: It was a stunningly beautiful morning. You know that kind of morning?  When the sun just seems to shine brighter, and the sky is so brilliant blue that it makes you stop […]

baptismal urgency – a reflection on Mark 1:9-15

February 7, 2012
by rick
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Eschatology / Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Year B

I think Mark, and Jesus, also believed that the spiritual life and ministry itself should be shrouded in urgency. When life and death, light and darkness, hope and despair, love and hate are at stake, there is no time for laziness. There isn't time for ho...hum...what to do now? No time for commissions to endlessly propose another commission to begin a study, and report back in four years, so that another commission can consider the study and propose another one. No.

spiritual vertigo – a reflection on the transfiguration

February 6, 2012
by rick
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Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Year B

The transfiguration is certainly a Christological event—it says something about Jesus. Jesus is at center of it all, and even the pillars of the Hebrew Bible are there to demonstrate that. But, it's also a scene which says a lot about the disciples, and thereby discipleship itself. They were taken up the mountaintop, and they had their socks knocked off. AND, they were totally and completely spiritually unprepared for such an experience.

moved and stretched – a reflection on Mark 1:40-45

January 30, 2012
by rick
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Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Year B

The following is a reflection on Mark 1:40-45, the Gospel lesson for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, February 12th, 2012, according to the New Revised Common Lectionary. On this site there is also a unique version of the Prayers of the People for All Epiphany. I take the stories of healing/ exorcism/ and raising-of-the-dead at several levels. First, there’s obviously the point that the Gospel authors wanted to make, that Jesus healed real people […]